DRINKING WATER

GettyImages-2195684944 data center Keep Your Cool: The Importance Of Advanced Side Stream Filtration In Data Center Operation

Advanced side stream filtration protects sensitive cooling infrastructure in data centers, extending membrane life, reducing water and energy use, and preventing costly downtime caused by particulate-loaded cooling water.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Innovative Communication Tool Enables Robust And Contact-Free Control Capabilities

    Two-way wireless communication can provide a wealth of benefits for municipal water utilities, including command and control abilities that underpin a wider smart city infrastructure. However, most tools currently on the market do not provide the flexibility and uncompromising speed that are necessary to enable these capabilities. The newly released Mueller® Mi.Net® LoRaWAN® (LW) node, by comparison, allows two-way data communication to take place within seconds instead of hours.

  • Upgrading From Gas Chlorine To On-Site Hypochlorite Generation To Improve Safety And System Resilience

    By replacing gas chlorine with on-site hypochlorite generation, Nashville was able to improve the safety and longevity of its water plants to accommodate the growth of the “Heart of Country Music” far into the future. At a recent water conference, Glen Doss, Treatment Plant Manager stated, “In 2016, the last gas chlorine railcar left to large applause.” 

  • AMI Reluctance And The Risk Of Doing Nothing

    Water utility systems that have transitioned to AMI benefit from increased revenue, reduced risk, improved customer relations, and widespread efficiencies across operations.

  • Hydra-Stop Solutions Isolate Damaged Valve During Water Main Replacement

    The Village of Covington, Ohio had an ambitious 90-day project to replace the water main, taps, sewer main, laterals, and storm sewer through the center of town. Unfortunately, on day one, an unknown water service line was snagged and the top half of an 8” valve blew off, causing water to shoot 10”–12” out of the street.

  • Electromagnetic Meters And Ultrasonic Meters — A Comparison

    Water and wastewater professionals rely on accurate flow measurements for process operation and regulatory compliance. Selecting the best flow meter for each application is essential to obtaining accurate flow data.

  • Village Blue Lake Pontchartrain Offers New Orleanians Insights Into Local Water Quality

    Water quality monitoring can be a powerful tool to help inform policies and environmental restoration efforts, and to keep local water bodies healthy. EPA recently launched a water quality monitoring project in New Orleans that’s helping the community learn more about Lake Pontchartrain’s water quality and its greater connection to the Mississippi River.

  • EPA Scientists Test Non-Targeted Analysis Methods Using Drinking Water Filters

    Today, researchers can rapidly search for thousands of never-before studied chemical compounds in a wide variety of environmental, residential, and biological media. This approach is called “non-targeted analysis” (NTA). It differs from targeted analysis because researchers do not have to know what specific chemical they are looking for in a sample. They can use high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to rapidly identify many of the chemicals present in a sample. The HRMS measures the accurate mass of molecules and can find chemicals that would have gone unnoticed before. This approach is beneficial not just to researchers, but to States, tribes, and local communities who might want to know more about chemical exposure.

  • Fuel And Fuel Additives

    The fuels that propel modern society have been found in water supplies all over the world. Some fuel-related contaminants can be found at a majority of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) National Priority List Sites, where they pose a potential threat to human and environmental health.

  • Lease vs. Purchase: A Guide To Maximum Cost Savings For Chlorine Dioxide Systems

    Chemical dosing for disinfection is a critical step in the drinking water treatment process, but the available solutions are often expensive. A high-quality chlorine dioxide system can address the need for disinfection as well as taste and odor control while minimizing disinfection byproducts, but the acquisition should be properly structured to be as economical as possible. Water Online spoke with JCS Industries President Brian Whitmore about the important factors to consider in determining which option for a chlorine dioxide system makes the most financial sense.

  • Valve Health Diagnostics

    Valves are one of the most common assets in the process industry, spanning all verticals. Chemicals, refineries, and petrochemicals, however, will find improved valve health diagnostics useful for critical valves and controllers in their plants, while upstream and midstream oil and gas companies may be focused on much larger, critical valves like pipeline or subsea valves. Using Seeq, process manufacturers are able to implement a condition-based monitoring analysis to monitor valve health across an entire fleet. Engineers can utilize the historical data to accurately create a predictive maintenance forecast and preemptively detect valve failures before they occur.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

  • Immediate pH Correction For Fluctuating Flow
    2/19/2014

    In a number of water, wastewater and industrial process applications, pH is one of the most critical and highly sensitive analytical measurements.  Examples of critical pH applications include: Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems in which a controlled feed of caustic solution is typically added to the feed stream in order to convert a portion of dissolved carbon dioxide into bicarbonate precipitate allowing for removal by the RO membrane. By Rafik H. Bishara, Steve Jacobs, and Dan Bell

  • Determination Of Pesticide Residues In Honey, By An Automated QuEChERS Solution
    9/17/2014

    The QuEChERS (Quick-Easy-Cheap-Effective-Rugged-Safe) sample extraction method was developed for the determination of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities.

  • Real-Time Water Quality Data For Agriculture
    9/23/2020

    We arm farmers with mission-critical water data to help enhance crop yield and taste. KETOS delivers valuable insights for fluctuations in deficiency and toxicity.

  • Circuit Board Cleanliness Testing
    10/29/2021

    Contamination of circuit boards can bring about severe degradation of insulation resistance and dielectric strength. Cleanliness of completed circuit boards is, therefore, of vital interest. For those companies who have established circuit board cleaning procedures, the MIL Spec P-28809 has been used as a guideline for control. Now a simple "on line" test for the relative measurement of ionic contamination has been developed.

  • Active Energy Control – Energy Reductions Of Up To 10% Above Standard Drives
    4/1/2017

    Energy costs continue to increase. At the same time, there is increased pressure to reduce utility bills without sacrificing operations or comfort.

  • Application Note: Using Real-Time Telemetry For Ecological Monitoring Of Coastal Wetlands
    2/3/2011
    The Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR)in Mississippi is one of 27 protected estuarine reserves across the United States. By YSI
  • Protecting Pumps From Dead Head Conditions
    4/6/2017

    The C445 motor management relay offers the most configurable protection options in the industry, with features specifically designed to protect critical pumps from costly damages due to dead-head and other underloaded or starved pump conditions.

  • The Basics: Keeping Our Water Clean Requires Monitoring
    4/30/2014

    Keeping the water in our lakes, rivers, and streams clean requires monitoring of water quality at many points as it gradually makes its way from its source to our oceans. Over the years ever increasing environmental concerns and regulations have heightened the need for increased diligence and tighter restrictions on wastewater quality.

  • Best Practices In Moist And Wet Gas Flow
    12/20/2021

    The Wet Gas MASSter sensor is for use in applications that have a high level of moisture or condensation present in the gas flow stream that cannot otherwise be removed.

  • The 'First Line Of Defense' In Protecting Membrane Filters
    8/9/2019

    Multi-element, self-cleaning pretreatment filters optimize membrane filter life and production while minimizing maintenance and downtime.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The Amiad Omega Series are automatic filters, with multiple screens operated by a common electric driven screen cleaning mechanism.

The PTBT5 is a lab-accurate water quality pocket tester that allows you to use your mobile device and the X2 app to measure, store and export data.

Delivers leading-edge technology to the non-invasive switch market by facilitating accurate level measurement for oil & gas, chemical, and power generation applications.

TrojanUV systems are installed for water providers who are adopting wastewater reuse to conserve natural drinking water supplies. 

The PermaNET SU leak detection loggers are a key part of our product lineup. These loggers function as acoustic sensors attached to the external surface of clean water distribution pipes. The leak detection process involves two main steps: first, the loggers measure the noise level emitted by the pipes and then evaluate it against a predefined threshold. Made in America and winner of the Environmental Protection Award, these loggers exemplify top-notch quality and reliability.

The PT6 is a rugged, lab-accurate water quality pocket tester with simple, one-button functionality.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

How does a combined sewer work? A representative from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) takes 60 seconds to draw a combined sewer and why they matter.

How much water does it take to make a hamburger? How about to manufacture a car? Having experienced growing up with limited resources living in a refugee camp in India, Anil Ahuja is leading a movement to design sustainable cities and systems that protect the earth and the people who live on it.

Water Research Foundation at the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center talking with Jim Fiedler and Andrew Salveson about upcoming WRF Direct Potable Reuse research projects.

The TROLL® 9500 Water Quality Instrument simplifies multiparameter monitoring. The TROLL 9500 is a powerful, portable unit that houses up to nine water quality sensors, internal power, and optional data logging capabilities.

The Orange County Water District (OCWD) has long been an innovative leader in indirect potable reuse. An integral component of its Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) – a 100 million gallon per day advanced water purification facility – is reverse osmosis membrane technology.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.